Month: March 2026

Progress:
This week, the team made a major step forward by finalizing the initial oscillator design. Charlie completed and locked the first implementation, which allowed the project to move out of the design-finalization stage and into fabrication, integration, and characterization. In parallel, the supporting NMOS analysis was completed to better organize the distributions of gm​, Id, and Vth​ across device types, patterns, and chips, giving the team stronger backing for the final device and parameter dimension choices. On the fabrication side, Ethan completed fab on Friday, and over the weekend Jim is immediately coordinating with HackerFab personnel to arrange time for initial measurements and to make sure the team is prepared for any measurement-specific details before characterization and iteration begins next week.

Schedule/Updates:
Compared to last week, the team is now in a much stronger position. The biggest bottleneck had been completing the oscillator design, but that has now been resolved, and fabrication has also moved forward, allowing the project to transition from design uncertainty into empirical validation. This means the team’s immediate work is now centered on collecting first measurements, preparing for the interim demo, and using the initial results to guide quick follow-up refinements.

Upcoming Deliverables:
Next week, the team’s main priorities are to complete the first round of characterization, continue preparing and presenting for the interim demo, and use the measured results to guide the next iterations. Ethan plans to use the characterization data to support a v2 design iteration, while Jim will work with Charlie to finalize the demo PCB based on a better empirical understanding of the oscillator’s actual performance. With the initial design complete and fabrication underway, the team is now positioned to move quickly on translating the finished design into measured results.

Progress:
This week, the team made meaningful progress toward locking the oscillator implementation. We now have a concrete schematic to build around, and the key device characterization data needed to support final design decisions has been compiled and reviewed. In particular, the NMOS measurement results were revisited in detail to compare Id​, gm​, and Vth​ across chips and patterns, which helped narrow the device choices and provide Charlie with the information needed to finalize values in the design and pending for fab.

On the hardware side, the testbench PCB design is effectively ready pending final pin assignment from the oscillator schematic. In addition, orders have already been placed for the PLCC28 chip holder and the backup PLCC28 through-hole to DIP-28 adapter to support initial bring-up. As a result, much of the supporting infrastructure for early testing is now in place, and the remaining dependency is primarily the finalization of the oscillator design itself.

Schedule/Updates:
Last week, the team was roughly two weeks behind schedule due to delays in locking the oscillator design. Since then, we have reduced that gap and are now closer to less than one week behind, assuming the design is finalized on Monday as planned. The key improvement is that the project has moved from a characterization and planning stage into a concrete implementation stage, with both the schematic direction and the supporting measurement data now largely in place.

At this point, the main remaining bottleneck is final design finalization and the transition into fabrication. Once the schematic and pin assignments are locked, the team is in a good position to move quickly on the remaining integration and bring-up steps. To continue reducing the schedule delay, the team’s focus is to finalize the design promptly and then execute quickly on the now-unblocked downstream tasks, since much of the supporting data and bring-up planning/infrastructure has already been completed in advance.

Upcoming Deliverables:
Next week, the team’s top priority is to finalize the oscillator design quickly and move into fabrication. Once the design is locked, the immediate next steps are fabrication and continue organizing the initial bring-up flow. Since the chip holder and backup adapter have already been ordered, the initial bring-up path is largely prepared; the team is now mainly waiting on final design completion and fabrication to proceed.